A lthough many species of fish remain active below the ice all winter long, it doesn't mean that they are always feeding. When you know the fish are down there but you can't seem to get them -to bite, it might be time to try a finesse approach.
It was a cold winter morning in the late 1990s and there were about 150 hard core ice anglers gathered on top of one square mile of hard water in the middle of Lake Simcoe. It was the start of the annual Canadian Ice Fishing Championships and we would be fishing deep water for whitefish and lake trout. Even before the competition officially began many of the teams knew there were plenty of fish in the northeast corner of the field. Their sonar units revealed that the fish were most likely whitefish, hugging bottom. The excitement began to build as the tournament director ceremoniously climbed the podium, raised his shotgun and proceeded to blast three shots into the air to start the event. Like the rest of the anglers, I dropped my line and impatiently waited for my spoon to reach bottom. A couple of minutes later I looked up to see whitefish after whitefish being hauled through 75-feet of water. Comptrollers were scrambling helter-skelter all over the ice trying to quickly score and then live release each of the five to eight-pound whities. It was a scene of sheer pandemonium that I had never witnessed before, nor have seen since. I jigged my spoon up and down and waited for my turn to feel that solid thump. A full agonizing three or four minutes went by. "Come on fish", I uttered, "before you're all gone." Then I felt it - a solid resistance halfway through the upwards movement of my jigging motion. I drove the hooks home and, with lo-pound test line and a beefy ice rod, I made short work of the six-pound whitefish, which was quickly scored and live released. Meanwhile, I saw two of my three parters (in those days we fished as four person ams; it's now two per team) with fish on. I elt excited about our chances. An hour 'ent by and then two. It seemed like somene had flicked a switch and now no one 'as getting bit anymore. What happened? 'ere the fish gone? Not really. The big, arauding pods of aggressively feeding itefish might have been, but I was still rking the occasional fish and so too were my partners. I presumed others were as well. We all switched spoons - different colors, different styles. We tried vertical baits and horizontal ones - everything we've ever caught whitefish with before - but came up empty. Still, we were seeing the odd mark on the sonar. "Hmm - I wonder?" I looked over to my pail of rods and noticed that I had one perch rod rigged - just in case. It was a light action rod loaded with four-pound test. On the end was a white, Berkley micro power tube jig slid over an equally small HT football jig. I dropped the tiny bait down the hole and watched it spiral out of sight. After what seemed like an eternity it finally touched bottom. I jiggled the tiny jig ever so seductively. I held it still; jiggled it a little more, then dead-sticked it. I saw my line go limp - no increase in tension, just a touch of slack. "Hmm - when in doubt... " With an exaggerated upwards movement I set the hook - hoping, praying for resistance. "Yes! Thank you God!" With my rod buckled over almost from tip to butt, that whitefish took an inordinately long time to land because of the light line, soft rod and overly nervous angler, but I eventually pulled the five-pounder near the hole, reached into the frigid water and heaved out that much sought after second whitefish of a two-fish limit. After handing my rod and perch rig over to my partners, they too soon had their whitefish count and we ended up in third place overall. My confidence with finesse tactics may have been reinforced that eventful day, but it was several years earlier when I was really introduced to the concept that when fish - regardless of size - are not actively feeding,
downsizing everything and minimizing the actions of your bait can result in increased catches. That initiation came when I was part of Team Canada at the World Ice Fishing Championships on Lake Simcoe. In that event, anglers from Sweden, Finland and other east European kicked our cold Canadian butts by utilizing their microtackle systems to trick our finicky, big fish. It was a humbling experience for sure, but it was also an eye opener, and one I learned a great deal from. WHY FINESSE Although many species of fish remain active below the ice all winter long, it doesn't mean that they are always feeding - or that when they are they'll eat everything in sight. Understand that during the open water season your baits are often travelling horizontally, away from the fish. Like a cat that can't stand to see a mouse get away, the same predator instinct often triggers fish to chase down your bait before it escapes. This is not the case with the vertical presentation you are limited to on the ice. Your bait is right there, displayed for long periods, seemingly not going anywhere in a real hurry. With this stationary, vertical approach, fish have the luxury to take their time, examine your bait closely and either accept your offering or snub their wet little noses at it and swim away. For the most part, finesse simply means downsizing your traditional winter tackle and using it in a more subtle and lifelike way. Everything is different, from the lure or bait you use, to your line size and choice of rod and reel. Besides the right tackle, finessing fish during the winter also means the actual way you work your baits. When presenting your baits through the ice several factors come into play that will help you determine whether a finesse approach should be part of your game plan. Let's look at a few of them. ClearWater Let's take my home lake, Lake Simcoe, as a prime example. Like so many other lakes in North America, water clarity has steadily improved since the onslaught of zebra mussels. Today it is not uncommon to be in an ice hut and able to see at least 30-feet down. Fish can detect poor, unnatural presentations and unattractive baits are quickly detected and rejected. Even without the filtering effects of zebra mussels most water bodies are much clearer in winter. Weather Conditions We all know that weather affects fishing. Here in southern Ontario the effects of the Great Lakes are ever present and winter weather conditions are seldom constant. Fish love consistency - summer or winter - and when barometric pressures are continually changing, and cold fronts are moving in and out, it can change how fish feed. Similarly, sunny skies versus overcast, or the light intensity of mid-day versus that of dawn or dusk, can influence feeding behaviour. Fishing Pressure Most ice anglers pay little attention to how fishing pressure can affect fish behaviour in the winter. In summer, many of them are quick to put down their spinnerbaits and toss something like a dropshot-rigged Berkley Gulp! Alive minnow, or other subtle presentation, when they think that too many other anglers out there have been chunking and winding big spinnerbaits. They know that downsizing and reverting to finesse techniques can catch big fish during a busy summer when power fishing techniques don't work. Yet for some reason, when the ice is full of anglers, they feel the same rules don't apply so they use their regular tackle and big baits all of the time. You cannot ignore the fact that Lake Simcoe is the most intensively fished inland lake in the province because of the winter fishery - when more people fish it than all in the other three seasons combined. How can as many as 4,000 ice huts fuji of ice anglers, combined with that many more fishing out on the open ice zooming around in vehicles, snow mobiles and ATV's - not have an effect on the feed- Concentrations of anglers can have a big effect on fish behaviour..f
ing behaviour of the occupants below? To add to this above-ice human influence, consider all the below-ice factors such as gas augers drilling through hard water everywhere, a few thousand big spoons and other traditional lures being jigged by so many humans and perhaps even the noise created by hundreds of sonar transducers. Butwhat if your favourite winter lake sees nowhere near the pressure that Simcoe does? Are fish still always affected by these factors? There is no easy yes or no answer regardless of where you are in the country, however, ask yourself if fishing activity on weekends is more intense than on weekdays. Do more anglers congregate in relatively small areas during prime times such as the evening walleye bite, even during mid-week? If there are periods when you can see an influx of more anglers than the lake is typicaljy used, even on remote lakes, than perhaps fishing pressure can indeed influence whether a fish grabs your lure or not. "Although these 1M-7 Graphite blanks have stiff butt sections so I can get good hook sets, they are sensitive and light enough to detect light strikes and allow me to downsize my baits for finesse presentations," he said. Although I am a strong proponent of the finesse approach, I do not discount the effectiveness of the power method, and still utilize it in varying degrees. For instance, when fishing a new lake, or revisiting an old one where power fishing has worked under certain circumstances before, I'll drill a bunch of holes in prime locations during prime time and fish each one with an approach like the one just described. I'll then walk from hole to hole searching for fish that are on the prowl for the first meal they can capture. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When there are no takers, I'll revert to dowiisizing, especially when I see fish or baitfish on my Lowrance Ice Machine. I like to do what the bass pros do and have several rod and reel combos tied up and conveniently available. Each one is carefujly selected to optimize the potential of a particular bait to perform at its highest capacity. Fortunately, the cost of most ice fishing rod and reel combos are a fraction of the cost of a good open water rod and BIG FISH TACTICS Power Fishing A very effective method to catch big, active lake trout or northern pike during the winter is to use a beefy stick matched with an equally robust spinning reel or heavy-duty baitcaster loaded with 14 to 17-pound test line. Slap on a big Quiver spoon or Buzz Blade and go hunting for actively feeding fish by jigging rather aggressively. This is a power approach that's tough to. beat. There's nothing delicate about it. I asked Bob Izumi if he was partial to any particular model of rod in for a power fishing approach. "Well, I guess I do kind of like my own Signatu,re Series ice rods that I designed for HT," he told me. There are two within the series of seven Signature Series ice rods that Izumi highly recommends for lake trout, pike and even big whitefish or walleye - the BI (for Bob Izumi) 28-inch medium/heavy action or the BI 31-inch medium action rods.
reel set so most serious ice anglers should be able to have three or four setups, in a variety of actions, to cover both power and finesse tactics. The Finesse Approach Finessing does not always mean downsizing. In many cases it simply means reverting from hard baits and an aggressive approach to soft tackle and a delicate approach. The use of tube jigs through the ice is still not widespread but it is quickly gaining popularity and is a prime example of how a soft, natural, presentation can produce above average sized fish across the country. Izumi noted that Berkley Gulp! tubes in particular, with their scent and flavour enhancers, are very productive below the ice and might just be the final triggering mechanism that makes a fish grab and not let go. A few years ago on Lake Nipissing, near North Bay, some friends and I were staying in one of the popular on-ice btu1galow operations. Throughout the entire season these huts are filled with visiting anglers, many of whom have a line down the entire time they're awake. Most arrive with standard walleye tackle - big jigs, stout rods and 10 to 14-pound test line. During the prime evening or very early morning bite these guys do catch fish, however, on our trip, I urged my brothel; 'Red', to try downsizing his tackle to see if that would up his odds any. Both of us, who were amongst a large roup of ice anglers that had wau<ed away rom the main set of huts, were out waiting r prime time, a couple of hours before the pper hour. Within minutes Red set the ok with his HT Polar Lite Jiggin' Stik and on had a good keeper on the ice; nothing ge, but just right for dinner. Soon I had e as well, using the:same outfit. We each d the Special Percll Action version of se rods; his, a 36-inch model; mine a 27. ey both had small reels with 4-pound test tied on. He was using a l/8-ounce Jig Xlhopper Hawger spoon with a built in 'Ietipped with a small shiner hooked just 'nd the dorsal. His method involved no al jigging per se, rather it was a thrum
I I ming or twitching rype of motion, just enough to make the minnow quiver and the spoon ratde. I was using a 1/8-ounce HT Glider jig, which has a small propeller that flashes just enough to attract nearby fish. I opted to hook on a Berkley Gulp! Minnow instead of live bait and used a similar, nervous-like twitching to impart action. What really made that evening memorable was no so much that we out-fished our fellow anglers almost three to one, but that we were catching fish well before the sun began to set. The rest of the gang had to wait for dusk - that short yet optimal prime feeding time - before we let them get their share of Nipissing eyes. Another example of a finesse approach being successful occurred not long ago when I was fishing for whitefish near Kenora with renowned, all-season angler, "Big" Jim McLaughlin, and author, Tom Gruenwald, of HT Enterprises. We were fishing a relatively small, yet specific area with several other anglers and we knew going in that big, gaudy spoons were not producing. So, we began with smaller, 1/4 and 3/8-ounce Cha trer Spoons. As good fortune would have it, we made the right choice right off the bat. "We wouldn't jig the crap out of these spoons," said "Big" Jim. "Our most effective presentation was to actually hold the spoon well above bottom and seductively twitch it just enough to make d1at rattle... chatter. This drove those northern whities crazy and we had a blast catching and releasing dozens upon dozens of them mat day." FINESSE FOR PANFISH It goes without saying that small baits, thin line and ultra-light outfits are a match made in heaven for species like perch, crappie and sunfish. But how small is small enough and how light is light enough? As with almost all fishing, there is seldom a hard and fast rule. "It depends," becomes an easy answer many of us use to deal with a multitude of fishing related questions. In this case it not only depends on the activity level of the panfish you are after, but how deep you are fishing them, the water color, the size of the school, fishing pressure and even the month and time of day. Let's explore this in a little more detail. For active panfish, slightly larger lures like HT's 1/8-ounce First Strike Minnow or size 6 Rocker Jigs are great search baits when first looking for mose hungry aggressive fish. They're especially good in deeper water because they sink quickly. Fish these baits on HT's BI 25-inch, medium-light action rod matched with a medium sized spinning reel and you can easily handle decent sized panfish.
Once you find a school of perch, sunfish or crappie there's often a steady decline in action after you get those first few overly-hungry fish. That's the time to switch up. Grab a BI 25-inch, light action rod and downsize your line to 2 or 3-pound test. Tie on an Alien Jig or lis-ounce Jig A Whopper Hornet Jig tipped with either live maggots or Berkley's Gulp! version, and lower it down. Jiggling the bait in place, instead of using a steady up and down jigging motion, is required to call in those reluctant fish that may not have been as hungry as others within the school. Finally, before you leave, go small - really small - maybe as far down as I-pound test. For line this light you'll want to use HT's lightest action Izumi Signature Series rod, the BI 24-inch ultra-light, or the Polar Lite Micro Action 24-inch rod. There are dozens of tiny baits that can fool the most finicky panfish but the key feature to keep in mind, especially if you are fishing anything over IO-feet deep, is "heavy for their size". Baits should be small yet feel heavy, like they would sink quickly, because that's exactly what you want them to do. My all time favourite, and one introduced to me by the Swedes who beat us on Lake Simcoe way back when, is the Marmooska Jig. Now manufactured by HT in a myriad of colors and sizes, these are the ultimate in winter finesse fishing. When tipped with a couple of Jive, juicy maggots they become the epitome of what winter finesse fishing is all about. This winter when you just know there are fish down there but you can't seem to get them to bite, think small, think natural, think light in the action of your rod and the way you present your bait, and you may well have found a remedy for those inactive biters. Be prepared and give finesse fishing a try this winter. ~ [ ------- 1